The present invention relates to IC carriers which are used with an IC tester for carrying a number of ICs one by one to test them in a sequential order, and particularly, to IC carriers which can be adjusted to load ICs of different sizes to be tested thereon when ICs to be tested are changed from one size to another.
To test a large number of ICs one after another, there has already been employed an automatic IC tester of the type wherein the ICs are loaded on IC carriers one by one at a loading section, carried to the neighborhood of a test section; unloaded from the IC carriers thereat at a carrying apparatus for removing an IC or ICs by suction and carrying them to the test section, and mounted on IC sockets of the test section for testing. In such an IC tester it is necessary that the IC unloaded from the IC carrier by suction be mounted on the test socket at an accurate position. Accordingly, heretofore special IC carriers are fabricated in accordance with the types and sizes of the ICs to be tested. With an increase in the integration density (level of integration) of ICs, however, the number of terminal leads that are led out of their packages has increased and the terminal lead-out structures or arrangements have also been diversified, ranging from a DIP (dual in-line package) type to QFP (quad flat package), SOP (small out-line package), SOJ (small out-line J-lead package), PLCC (plastic leaded chip carrier) and similar types. Thus, there are various types of ICs and sometimes they are fabricated in different sizes although they are of the same type. Therefore, in the case where the type or size of IC to be tested is changed to another type or size all IC carriers currently disposed in the IC tester must be exchanged manually for IC carriers of the required structure corresponding to the ICs to be tested next. This is very inconvenient this is very troublesome. In addition, since it is necessary to prepare IC carriers corresponding to ICs of all different types and different sizes, the efficiency of use of each IC carrier is low and a large space is needed to store such a large number of IC carriers.